Overweighted???

[radtype]

Enjoy the diving. Keep evaluating the weights and you should eventually be able to drop a few pounds of lead. I assume you are buoyant with full tank on the surface.

 

[gcarter]

Two things will (likely) happen with time / experience:

1) You will shed weight
2) You will improve your air consumption

Fixating on either takes a lot of the joy out of your diving.

Wear what you think you need and don't worry about it. If you ARE over weighted, I doubt very much it is dangerously so. Enjoy your diving!

 

[cool_hardware52]

Enjoy the diving. Keep evaluating the weights and you should eventually be able to drop a few pounds of lead. I assume you are buoyant with full tank on the surface.

Er, ah, well if you are buoyant at the surface when your cylinder is full you aren't going diving. Snorkeling maybe, diving not so much.

Tobin

 

[UserNameBella]

I worked the BCD today at my safety stop, trying to get all the air out. I rolled and kneaded, pinched and took many humorous positions. Barely bubble came out. I'm not sure if that is proper protocol to make sure its empty, but I think it was empty.

I take really great photos, so I'm definitely neutrally buoyant at any depth, I got all that figured out. Breathing, emptying lungs to sink, hovering. All that good stuff. Everyone says I will use less air if I don't have as much weight, and that is my goal, to have longer dives. That being said, I am coming up from hour long dives with max depths of 100 feet for 20 minutes and the rest at around 40-60 feet with over 1000 psi, so I don't see how I need to use less air. The dive shop won't let me return partial tanks for refunds, so whats the point?

I think 16 lbs might be my weight for diving maybe? I really do prefer swimming in the shallows for three minutes than forcing my breath out to stay down. I take very nice photos in the shallows, the lighting is beautiful.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I worked the BCD today at my safety stop, trying to get all the air out. I rolled and kneaded, pinched and took many humorous positions. Barely bubble came out. I'm not sure if that is proper protocol to make sure its empty, but I think it was empty.

I take really great photos, so I'm definitely neutrally buoyant at any depth, I got all that figured out. Breathing, emptying lungs to sink, hovering. All that good stuff. Everyone says I will use less air if I don't have as much weight, and that is my goal, to have longer dives. That being said, I am coming up from hour long dives with max depths of 100 feet for 20 minutes and the rest at around 40-60 feet with over 1000 psi, so I don't see how I need to use less air. The dive shop won't let me return partial tanks for refunds, so whats the point?

I think 16 lbs might be my weight for diving maybe? I really do prefer swimming in the shallows for three minutes than forcing my breath out to stay down. I take very nice photos in the shallows, the lighting is beautiful.

More garbage. We are talking about a few lbs here. Obviously if you are overweighted (which I doubt) it is 3-4 lbs max. That means that you would be carrying (displacing 4 lbs worth of extra air in the BC). 4 lbs of air volume is half of a gallon... A quart. do you think that tiny bit of extra "size" is going to slow you down and make you consume more air? It is nothing and if you are taking pictures, you are probably moving slowly which means this is even less important.

 

[Akimbo]

… 4 lbs of air volume is half of a gallon... A quart. do you think that tiny bit of extra "size" is going to slow you down and make you consume more air? ...

Not much but 4 Lbs sloshing around can sure play hell with trim. I agree her weight is pretty darn close as well, almost certainly closer than 4 Lbs.

 

[cool_hardware52]

I worked the BCD today at my safety stop, trying to get all the air out. I rolled and kneaded, pinched and took many humorous positions. Barely bubble came out. I'm not sure if that is proper protocol to make sure its empty, but I think it was empty.

Good for you. I'd suggest taking just the bc and submerging it while holding the various dumps open, let the hydrostatic pressure force out any trapped gas. Then determine the inherent buoyancy of the BC.

I take really great photos, so I'm definitely neutrally buoyant at any depth, I got all that figured out. Breathing, emptying lungs to sink, hovering. All that good stuff. Everyone says I will use less air if I don't have as much weight, and that is my goal, to have longer dives. That being said, I am coming up from hour long dives with max depths of 100 feet for 20 minutes and the rest at around 40-60 feet with over 1000 psi, so I don't see how I need to use less air. The dive shop won't let me return partial tanks for refunds, so whats the point?

I think 16 lbs might be my weight for diving maybe? I really do prefer swimming in the shallows for three minutes than forcing my breath out to stay down. I take very nice photos in the shallows, the lighting is beautiful.

As I mentioned in my first post in this thread you could well need more ballast, but eliminating the other possibilities is worth the effort.

Good luck,

Tobin

 

[bowlofpetunias]

I like your attitude. You seem open minded looking for advice but have a mind of your own. As others have said, don't fixate on any one thing. Enjoy your dives, dive what you are comfortable with, keep being open minded and if you reach a point where dropping weight is right ... you will know.

I do know that when I changed BCD's I had to add 2 pounds weight.

Only thing I will add. Being a lot underweight or over weight can be dangerous. From your discription it does not appear that you are much off anyway. You need to be prepared to drop eights if needed. Too many people have come to regret their failure to do so in emergency situations.

 

[Patoux01]

You need to be prepared to drop eights if needed. Too many people have come to regret their failure to do so in emergency situations.

Which is where proper weighting comes into the game...
Assuming you're diving a single tank with a cheap 7mm neoprene suit, you might end up 5-6kg negative at 30m if you manage to get a complete failure of your bc straight as you descend. 5kg, I know for sure I can kick that up, it won't be fun, but I'll get there. Once on the surface, I can cut away the gear since there's nothing in there useful to me (if your bc doesn't make you float, might as well ditch it). If you drop your weights at the bottom, you're in for a fast ride to the surface.
If I am a few kg overweighted, I end up kicking 8-9kg to the surface, which seems more of an issue to me. And people being 3 kg overweighted are not rare in our area, that's for sure.

That's why I'm a "weight nazi" and can "piss off" according to this thread, but I'd rather have someone do a complete check and think about what they're doing, even if it means being aware of your breathing for one dive, than telling her not to worry and keep going the way she does (which could be wrong, or right !). If after having done a check and actually being aware of how big their lungs are (and how they use them!) they still need 16 pounds for a 2mm shorty, I'm fine with that.

To get the air out of your BC, look at its shape, it should make you understand how to easily dump all the air out of it.

 

[cool_hardware52]

That's why I'm a "weight nazi" and can "piss off" according to this thread

Learn to ignore the trolls, life gets better.

Tobin